and another shop is opened

Ok, it's open!

The Pickled Pantry

Named as a spin off of my main store, Pickled Pumpkins.  This new one contains products of my craft "pantry" (if there is such a thing).  And this is to feed the aforementioned addiction I have to paper.

So come check it out!

I will be adding new stuff everyday until it's overflowing!

Here's a peek:

the Valentines are in

Come check out the new Valentines at the shop!  There are 6 different sets to choose from!  So cute, I love these little cards so much!  They are 2x3.5" and come with little envelopes.  They come in a set of 12 for only $5.50!!  Here are the sets:

Farm Friends

Kitchen Friends

Laundry Day

A Good Pair

Robot Friends

Sweet Friends

And who says Valentines can't be year round?? 

Some possible uses for tiny Valentines include (but not limited to):

-Classroom Valentines

-slipping in a lunchbox

-tucking in a purse or wallet

-leaving around the house (ie: computer, mixing bowl)

-inlcude with other letters as a fun little extra

Have fun with them!  Check them out here!

what have I been up to lately?

Not that anyone is asking ;)... but... I have been painting again!  I go in spurts with it.  I'll paint for a while, then I have to take a break and do something else for a while.  Then I come back and paint some more.  So here's what I've been working on lately... aside from the Valentines (which are almost ready to put in the shop):

a robot

a train set

and some tiny, mini paintings of

kitchen appliances

These ones match some of my valentines.  I enjoy small kitchen appliances.  So they are all works-in-progress and will all hopefully be finished in the very near future.

But...

I've also been feeding my addiction to paper.  This is what I've been doing in the painting-off times:

gift tags

I know... it's weird.  I truly have an addiction to paper.  So.... I'm opening up a second Etsy shop in hopes of feeding my paper addiction.  More news on that later.

 Well it's dinner time now.  But before I go, just want to say thanks to everyone who reads my silly blog.

a sneak peek at the Valentines

Thought I'd share a sneak peak of the Valentine's Day cards that will be in the shop any day now...

I know you can't see them very well, I'm not the best photographer.  But there are a few of the illustrations on my shop banner.  I draw them on paper, scan them in, color them digitally, put the design together and... voila!  I'm so excited to get them printed!  They are so fun!  I love them. :)

the Sweatheart Sale starts today

A sale in my shop starts today!  It's Buy One Get One FREE for all PRINTS and prints ONLY.  In order to get your free print, you must select a print to buy, then specify which additional print you would like in the "Message to Seller" section of the checkout process.  I will send both prints to you with no additional shipping charges.

Enjoy shopping for your loved ones!

I love being a mom... so much!

I have tried not to make my little Noah the center of my artwork blog, but...  he IS the inspiration for most of my artwork.  He IS the focus of most of my day.  He IS the sweetest, cutest little boy I've ever known.

The other day while playing with Noah, I squished my cheeks together to make a face at him.  He laughed, then came up to me and squished my cheeks together with his big, clammy hands and kissed my puckered lips, then hugged me.  Then.... be still my heart.... he did it again... and again... and again...  For about seven minutes he did this over and over again.  My cheeks were sore, my lips were raw, I had things to get done...  But this little moment in time... it is times like these that you forget everything else around you and live in that moment.  Just soak it up because it may never happen again.   And you say, "I love being a mom".

seeing the lights.... post Christmas

We wanted to take Noah to see Layton's crazy display of "Christmas" lights, but didn't want to fight the crowd so we waited until after Christmas to go.  Now what I mean by "crazy display" and my quotes around the word Christmas is that these lights are downright silly.  You've got everything from mermaids to dinosaurs, monkeys, dragons, airplanes, flowers, bears, dolphins, butterflies and yes... even a unicorn!

Silly.

Speaking of silly... luckily these snow pants are hand-me-downs because of course by the time Noah can wear them, they are a wee bit small.  But he LOVED them!

It was PAINFULLY cold that night, but Noah didn't care at all.

There he goes...

He so loved the silly lights...

All in all, we were only there for about 15 minutes because of the single digit temperature.  Needless to say, Noah was very upset we were leaving so fast, so we drove around the park a few times so he could see the lights from the warmth of the car.